


If There's A Future I Want It Now

by PurpleWombat14481



Series: Avengers AU [2]
Category: EXO, EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Avengers, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-28 20:10:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6343492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PurpleWombat14481/pseuds/PurpleWombat14481
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kris has spent the last seventy years travelling the world and not staying in any one place for too long. He keeps himself from getting to attached to any one person or place for too long, ever since he lost the last person he cared about. But things change when he's collected to join a team of people like him. A team of people with superpowers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is in the same universe as Stop Running. I am still working on that one too, but when writers block attacks in one, I tend to still be able to work on the other so. I'll hope to update that soon.

It was supposed to be the easy part: zipline down onto a moving train and ride safely across enemy lines. The snow was light, the wind was in their favor, and it was far from the most difficult thing that they had ever done. And they had made it onto the train with no problems at all. So Kris didn’t really know how it ended up like this, hanging from the train with only his hand in Chanyeol’s and Chanyeol’s hand on the train keeping them from falling hundreds of feet into the snow.

But he was slipping from Chanyeol’s grasp, and he knew it.

“Just let me go.” Kris shouted up, trying to be heard over the sounds of the train. Chanyeol shook his head.

“Never.” Chanyeol told him, more serious than Kris thought he ever needed to be.

“If you don’t let me go, you’re going to fall too. And what will happen if there is no Captain America to save the world?” Kris tried to reason, hoping that Chanyeol would understand him.

“I don’t care.”

Kris couldn’t risk letting Chanyeol fall to his death. Kris knew that he himself might survive, his weirdly accelerated healing might be enough to make up for the fall, but Chanyeol was human in all the ways that counted and wouldn’t be able to make it. Kris knew what he had to do.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered, before letting go of Chanyeol’s hand. And then he was falling, wind rushing up past his ears as he plummeted towards the snow and rocks below him. A yell of his name followed his journey down. Kris closed his eyes and prayed that the impact wouldn’t hurt too much just before he landed.

And then he woke up, sweating and breathing hard in a bed that wasn’t his own. He was alive. He was alive in some hotel in Japan and Chanyeol was dead and seventy years had passed since that day. He sat up slowly, trying to shake off the remnants of the memory. Kris didn’t dream very often, but when he did it was mostly memories. Sometimes they were happy, but a lot of the time he relived times when he’d lost someone. He often relived the day that he lost Chanyeol.

He’d thought that he’d be okay, after so long. He’d lost many people, and it hurt every time, but for some reason this one loss hurt the most.

He shook his head, trying to clear his brain and to not dwell on things. Nothing positive ever came about from thinking too much about the past. So Kris got up and made himself some coffee using the fancy machine in the room he was in. The smell was enough to distract him from the remnants of the memory that were still trying to cling to him.

He sipped his coffee while making his way over to sit on a chair near the windows that overlooked a garden outside. It looked like it would be a nice day, the sun was out and there looked to be a slight breeze. Maybe he would go for a walk later, if he felt like interacting with people once he was completely awake. But probably not. He only had a few more days to go before he would probably move on again. A new city, a new hotel, new surroundings. He’d been so many places in the last few years that staying in one place for too long felt stifling.

Of course, there was one place he would stay, if a certain person were to ask him to. But they didn’t talk about their feelings, even if they existed. Kris sighed as his brain went from thinking too much about someone from his past to thinking too much about someone he didn’t even have. What he had with Yixing was casual. They fooled around whenever Kris returned to New York City. Maybe there were mutual feelings involved, maybe there weren’t, but Kris never stayed around long enough to find out. He knew that he wanted something serious, but that would require asking if Yixing felt the same and staying in New York for more than a week or two at a time. Maybe… Maybe it would be worth it though.

He was about to give in and go grab his cellphone from the table next to his bed to call Yixing, hoping to god that he would be able to answer, but was interrupted by a knock at the door. Weird.

“Room service.” A female voice called through the door in slightly accented Japanese. Kris knew something was weird with that, but went to answer the door anyway. He could do with some excitement.

Standing outside of his room was a woman about an entire foot shorter than him with long black hair tied up in a ponytail and wearing what looked to be a catsuit. She walked right in without any introduction and sat down in the chair that he had left unoccupied. Kris shut the door before turning to her in confusion. He was about to ask her who she was, but she spoke up first, in English.

“Yifan Wu. You look confused.” She began, crossing her legs as she took a sip of his coffee. “I’m not here to hurt you, don’t worry.”

A lot of potential responses ran through his head but “Call me Kris” was the first thing to come out of his mouth, quickly followed by “I’m not worried.”

“No, I suppose you wouldn’t be. Not with those claws of yours. You can put them away, you know.” Kris looked down at his hands to see that his claws had indeed popped out of the back of his hands. He hadn’t even noticed. He concentrated on relaxing and they slid back beneath his skin. “There you go.”

“Who are you?” He asked, finally.

“My name is Moonbyul.”

“What do you want from me?” She smirked at him.

“That is the real question isn’t it. I was sent here by a very important man to try and convince you to come with me to New York.” Kris sighed, that wasn’t much to work with.

“Why?” He tried again, hoping for more details.

“Supervillains have been acting up recently. More than one hero can handle. My employer is trying to get together a group of people to work as a team  to make the job of keeping the city safe just a bit easier.” That sounded like a good idea, in theory, but Kris wasn’t so sure he wanted to be a part of it.

“I don’t work well with others.”

“We both know that isn’t true, Mr. Wu.” She told him, standing up. “You worked very well with Captain America in the past. And I know you are quite the team with Daredevil.”

“How--”

“We’ve been keeping tabs on you for quite a while. This idea isn’t a new one, we just had to make sure that we chose the best of the best to be on the team. And we think you are one of the best.”

“What’s in it for me?” Kris asked, genuinely thinking it through.

“A permanent home. A steady job. A private jet so that you can do all of the travelling you want when not saving innocent people.” And that, that sounded tempting. But, Kris wondered, who had the money to guarantee those things.

“Who, exactly, is your employer?” He pried, wanting to know who he was going to be working for if he agreed.

“You’ll have to come with me if you want to find out.” Moonbyul taunted.

“You will tell me or I won’t go with you.” Kris threatened. Going into something without knowing all of the details was never a good idea, he knew from experience.

“Then you will forever be curious as to what you missed out on.” Moonbyul responded, seemingly not affected at all by the chance that Kris wouldn’t go with her. She started to make her way to the door. She was right. He would be curious if he didn’t go with her. He was trying to experience new things, travelling all over, so why not join a team of heros. That would certainly not be boring. “I’m sorry that you don’t want to take a risk for once. Good luck with whatever you are trying to do with your life.” Her hand was on the doorknob.

“Wait.” Kris said, rushing to put a hand on the door to keep it closed. He didn’t miss the smirk on her face. Dammit, he’d played right into her hands. But he had to go with it, now that he had stopped her. He sighed audibly. “Fine. I’ll go with you.”

“Great. Pack up your things. We leave right away.” Moonbyul told him, going right back to the chair and sitting back down. She watched as Kris gathered up his belongings. Which, admittedly, wasn’t much. He had a suitcase full of clothes and a bag full of other things that he deemed important to keep. The last thing he packed was a scrapbook full of pictures of people he’d met that he never wanted to forget. That was the most important thing. He made sure it was in a safe place in his bag before he grabbed his cell phone and wallet. Once they were stored away in his pocket he turned back to the woman sitting at the table.

“Okay, I’m ready to go.”

“Awesome.” Moonbyul placed a hand near her ear, seeming to press a button. “Hawkeye, get the jet ready, I have Mr. Wu and we will be there in a minute.” She listened intently to someone that Kris couldn’t hear. “Got it.”

“What was that?” He asked, curious.

“The private jet is ready to take us to New York.” Moonbyul smiled at him. She stood up and strode to the door, this time actually getting it open. Kris followed like a lost puppy. He hated feeling lost, but with the few details he had been given, he had no choice but to follow if he wanted to go with her. She led him out of the hotel and down the streets of Kyoto. He wanted to ask her where they were going, but every time he opened his mouth she took an unexpected turn and he had to shut up and follow.

Kris was beginning to regret his decision to come with her. The walk wasn’t hard, exactly, but with the luggage he was carrying he was nowhere near as graceful making the turns as Moonbyul was and maybe he had run into a few walls. Not that he would ever admit to that. But one more turn brought them to a large open field, occupied by what looked to be a small aircraft. It was much sleeker than a helicopter, but it was a lot smaller than any jet that Kris had ever seen before. There was an open door on at the back. Moonbyul was had already entered while Kris was staring.

“Hurry up.” She called to him, rolling her eyes. He scrambled to follow her, almost tripping over himself in the process. Sometimes he forgot just how much limb he had.

When Kris was finally on board, Moonbyul helped him store his things in a place where they wouldn’t move around too much and gave him a tour of the jet.

“If you get thirsty on the trip there are plenty of drinks in this cooler.” She pointed to a door that was concealed in the wall of the jet. “It’s a rather long flight back to New York, so we don’t expect you to be awake for all of it. Just don’t be disruptive and we will get along just fine. That guy,” Moonbyul gestured towards the man sitting in what looked to be the pilot’s seat, “Is Tao. He is in charge of getting us back to the United States in one piece, so please don’t mess with him.”

“I’ve flown this thing a million times, you know that.” The man spoke up, turning his chair around. He looked like he was barely out of his teen years. Kris wanted to groan. He didn’t want his life in the hands of some child. Though he knew that if the jet went down he would probably be the one person who would survive. “You don’t have to worry about a thing.” And then he turned back towards the controls.

Kris heard the door close behind them and realized that this was the point of no turning back. At least, not until they landed. If he changed his mind he could probably run for it once they were safe on the ground. That thought was a bit comforting, to be honest.

He watched as Moonbyul took the seat next to Tao’s. They talked quietly, with a lot of gestures that Kris was unsure of what they meant. From watching them, it seemed like they knew each other very well. Kris had forgotten what it was like when two people knew how each other worked. It was pretty fascinating to watch.

Kris didn’t sleep on the entire flight. A lot of the time was spent watching the two people up front, but he also played quite a few levels of Candy Crush on his phone until the battery ran out. He felt strangely comfortable with these people. He didn’t quite trust them, not yet, but nothing about them screamed that he needed to be suspicious of anything. Maybe that was enough, for now.

Kris was surprised to see that it was still light outside when they landed. But perhaps that wasn’t so surprising. He didn’t know. Time zones and flight times confused him. Looking out the window, he saw that they were on a helicopter pad high above the city.

Wait a minute… He knew this area of the city. He knew this tower.

Kris was about to ask about it when Tao spoke from the front of the jet.

“Welcome to what will soon be known as Avengers Tower, Mr. Wu.”

And that, well, it left Kris with even more questions.


	2. Chapter 2

Kris had just barely had time to put his stuff in the room that Moonbyul had pointed out as his when a voice came out of nowhere telling him to report to some conference room. He groaned, he had really just wanted to sleep after the trip.

“I don’t even know where I’m supposed to go.” He grumbled to himself.

“Take the elevator down two floors and it is the second door on your right.” The voice came again, causing Kris to jump.

“Um. Thanks?” Kris looked around for the source of the voice. He couldn’t find anything. “Who are you?”

“I am the artificial intelligence set up all throughout the tower. Mr. Kim will explain more at the meeting.” If Kris didn’t know better, he would have said that the AI sounded almost bored, as if it had answered the question a million times. It probably had.

For a second, Kris debated just flopping into bed and sleeping anyway, but he was curious as to what was going on. He forced himself to walk back out of the door with one forlorn glance at his bed. He found the elevator easily enough and pressed the down button.

He didn’t have to wait very long for the elevator to arrive. The slightly more difficult part came once he was inside. I took him a second to locate just which floor he was already on so that he could press the button for two floors down. He blamed it on how tired he was. He was just glad that no one had been around to witness him just standing in the elevator for sixty seconds with the doors open, looking lost.

Once he reached the floor he was supposed to be on, finding the conference room was easy. It was the only room with an open door. Kris walked in and immediately felt awkward. Everyone was staring at him. He quickly sat down in the only open seat that he saw.

Kris looked around, trying to see if he knew anyone. He groaned internally when he realized that he was seated next to Tao. Moonbyul was on Tao’s other side. A few other people seated at the table looked vaguely familiar, either from the news or fro when he had been in New York before, fighting crime. Standing at the front of the room, next to a holographic screen, was Junmyeon Kim, the owner of the tower. Seated closest to Junmyeon was Yixing. Kris was a bit surprised to see him there.

“Nice of you to join us.” Junmyeon began. Kris was about to apologize for taking so long, but Junmyeon just kept talking, this time addressing everyone. “I’ve gathered you all to form a team of heroes to fight the threats that just one or two of us cannot handle alone. And since I have enough money to house a team, you can all stay here. At least until I manage get a more permanent headquarters built for us. This team will be called the Avengers.” Kris thought that Junmyeon seemed overly proud of his relatively simple team name. His thought was confirmed when Junmyeon raised his hand for a high five and looked expectantly at Yixing. The other man just blinked at him. Kris nearly smacked his head on the table from laughing so hard as Junmyeon lowered his hand again, looking embarrassed. “Erm. Anyway. Since we’re going to be living together, we should do some introductions. And then we can talk business.” He paused for a second. “I”m Junmyeon. Iron Man. And I am a genius.” Kris thought that that was an oddly elementary school introduction for someone of Junmyeon’s reputation, but if that meant that Kris didn’t need to say too much about himself, then he was grateful for it. “Yixing?” Kris saw Yixing roll his eyes before speaking.

“My name is Yixing, also known as Daredevil. I’m blind.” He put special emphasis on the word blind, making Junmyeon shuffle a bit in embarrassment all over again.

“I’m Jongdae.” The man sitting next to Yixing said, smiling. He looked almost as young as Tao did. “I go by Falcon. I’m a SHIELD agent.”

Sitting next to Jongdae was a guy who looked like a grumpy high schooler. Kris really didn’t want to be surrounded by teenagers. He was starting to reconsider the whole thing. “Kyungsoo. Hulkling. I’m twenty-three.” Well. Not a teenager then. Very talkative. And then it was Kris’ turn.

“Um. I’m Kris. Wolverine. I’m from Canada?” That counted as a fun fact right? Everyone always seemed to know that he had worked with Captain America once they saw his face, so. Yixing’s unseeing eyes were on him the entire time he was speaking. Kris decided that he really needed to talk to him after whatever this meeting was.

“My name’s Tao.” Tao started almost immediately after Kris had stopped talking, smiling widely and sounding excited. Kris wasn’t as annoyed by his enthusiasm as he had expected to be. Huh, interesting. “My codename is Hawkeye, I’m a master marksman, and I grew up in the circus.” Moonbyul rolled her eyes.

“Almost everyone knows that already, Tao. I’m Moonbyul, the Black Widow.” She didn’t continue, so after an awkward moment of silence, the remaining people introduced themselves. There was Spider-woman, Captain Marvel, and the Wasp, whose names Kris found out were Solar, Hwasa, and Wheein, respectively. Junmyeon took control of the room again after the final introduction was finished.

“Great.” He smiled. “I know we’ll all get along great. A few things about this tower. The AI unit, called MAMA, is all throughout the tower. She is here to help, just say something and she will be able to here. She is the most advanced AI in existence.” He looked smug. Kris wasn’t sure how he felt about Junmyeon. He didn’t dislike him, at least not yet from this first impression, but it would have to be examined. Later. When he didn’t have more pressing matters to take care of. “This isn’t actually the entire team. There are a few more people I would like to recruit. I just need your help.” He made some hand motion that Kris didn’t quite catch and a picture popped up in front of the table. It was of a younger looking man.

“This is Minseok Kim. Also known as the Hulk. He was last spotted somewhere in England.” Junmyeon continued, motioning again. An image of a large green humanoid… thing, that Kris assumed was supposed to be the Hulk, popped up alongside the first picture. One more motion and a grainy image of a man sipping some drink outside of a cafe joined them. “Tao.” The kid perked up at the sound of his name. “I want you to track him down and bring him to us. You’ll be going alone. We don’t want to scare him by sending too many people.

“Next we have the twins, Jongin and Sehun.” A picture of two teenage boys replaced the images of Minseok. “They seem to be mutants, and have been trying to solve crimes on their own. Moonbyul, Hwasa, you’ve already been briefed on them, so I want you two to either bring them to us or talk some common sense into them. They’ll be safe if they work with us.” The women spoken to just nodded in understanding. Another picture was brought up to replace the boys. Some guy in a red and black mask.

“This is Deadpool. We don’t actually know much about him except that he heals fast and that he want him on our side. Kris. Could you hunt him down for us and talk to him?” Junmyeon looked at Kris expectantly. Kris froze for half a second. He was tempted to say no, really tempted, but he figured he should help, at least until he reached the point where he would up and leave.

“Um. Sure. Can I sleep first though?” Junmyeon laughed a little at Kris’ question. Kris didn’t think he had been funny at all.

“Of course. Rest all you need to before going to find him. In fact, we’re done here. Everyone, feel free to explore.” Junmyeon dismissed. Kris was glad to be free to go.

He tried to follow Yixing out of the door to talk to him, but was instead intercepted by Junmyeon. Kris could only watch as Yixing made his way down the hall.

“Hey.” Junmyeon smiled at him and god, Kris felt so awkward.

“Hi?”

“Would you like a private tour around the tower? I designed it, you know.”

“I’d really rather just go to sleep. It’s been a long day.” Junmyeon didn’t seem too disappointed.

“I’ll walk you back to your room then.” He told Kris, grabbing his wrist to lead him to the elevator. Kris had no choice but to follow. He found his wrist was free again once they stepped into the elevator. Kris prepared himself for an awkward conversation, but Junmyeon just hummed along to the music playing instead. No, the talking didn’t come until they were standing outside of the door to Kris’ room.

“Would you like some company?” Junmyeon asked, in a way that was probably supposed to be seductive. At least, that’s what Kris gathered by the movement of the smaller man’s eyebrows.

“What?”

“You know. In bed.” A warm hand was placed on Kris’ arm.

“I. Um. N-no thank you.” Kris stammered, brushing Junmyeon’s hand away a bit harder than was probably necessary. This time, Junmyeon did seem disappointed, and embarrassed. Kris almost felt bad.

“I. Uh. I’ll just go polish my robots then. Sorry for bothering you.” Junmyeon excused himself, before running off down the hall. Kris blinked after him, before shrugging and walking into the room.

Sitting in the second bed that Kris hadn’t even noticed was there earlier, was Tao, aggressively playing some video game with his tongue sticking out. He looked up at the sound of the door closing and greeted Kris with an excited “Hey man!”

This time, Kris couldn’t suppress his sound of exasperation.


	3. Chapter 3

Despite the unexpected roommate, the first night back in New York was one of the best night’s sleep Kris had gotten in a long time. Tao was quiet and courteous, putting headphones in and muting his game when he became aware that Kris wanted to sleep. He didn’t snore either, which was always a plus. Kris had shared rooms with some pretty loud snorers in the past, and it always made it much harder for him to sleep.

He sat up in bed and found that his roommate was still asleep. Glancing at his cell phone he noticed that is was a little bit past nine am. If Yixing’s habits were still the same as they had been the last time Kris was in New York, he was awake too. So Kris forced himself to get up out of bed and get changed into respectable clothes. He located the bathroom so that he could brush his teeth and make himself look presentable for the day.

Once clean, Kris wandered into the hallway. It only took a moment before he realized that he had no clue where Yixing was. He didn’t even know if Yixing’s room was on the same floor as his own. Well, it was as good of a time as any to try out the AI Kris guessed.

“Um. Hi?” Kris said into the emptiness of the hallway. He felt ridiculous talking to thin air and not addressing anyone or anything in particular, but there was no way he was going to call the AI mama, that was just too weird for him.

“Good morning Mr. Wu. How was your first night here?” The voice rang out through the hallway. Kris jumped slightly in surprise. He didn’t really know if he had expected the feeble attempt to actually summon the AI.

“It was good. Uh. Do you happen to know where Yixing is?” Kris inquired. He had no clue where to focus on, so he looked in the direction of the ceiling. Talking to a voice with no body was so weird.

“He is in one of the lounge areas a few floors down. Would you like me to direct you there?”

“Yeah, that would be great. Thank you.”

“My pleasure. Just step into the closest elevator and I will take you down to the correct floor.”

Kris wasn’t entirely sure that he wanted to listen to the AI, but if he wanted to find Yixing in a timely manner and talk to him without anyone else around, it seemed like his best bet to follow directions. He entered the same elevator he had taken the night before, but this time the door closed seconds after he was inside. The elevator started moving on its own accord before Kris even really had a chance to look at the buttons.

He ended up on the floor below the one where the meeting had taken place the night before. When the door opened, he saw that the entire area looked to be a common space. Most of the floor looked like it was taken up by couches and televisions, with different gaming systems spread out too. There was also what looked to be a fully stocked kitchen to his left, with a table large enough to seat at least fifteen people. Kris was in awe, he had never seen anything so nice. It took him a second to shake himself out of his daze and step out of the elevator. He scanned the couches, looking for any indication that Yixing was there.

He spotted him lying across one of the couches against a wall with his eyes closed. There was sunlight streaming through the windows above the couch, coating Yixing in light. Kris thought he looked rather cozy and warm. The smaller man’s eyes opened as Kris approached. Kris had tried to be quiet, as to not wake him up, but he knew that Yixing would probably pick up on the vibrations he caused as he walked across the carpet. Kris wasn’t exactly small or light on his feet. He left that to Yixing and others who were more graceful. Yixing sat up to make room next to him on the couch, a spot which Kris quickly occupied.

“Hey.” Kris began. He couldn’t help but smile. He hadn’t seen Yixing in a few months and as much as whatever they had was casual, there were feelings involved, on both sides. Phone calls just weren’t enough, not to mention expensive when Kris was out of the country, and face timing didn’t work when one of them was blind. He had missed Yixing’s face.

“Hey yourself.” Yixing was also smiling. That was good. Kris liked that smile. “I didn’t expect to be meeting you here.”

“I didn’t expect to be back in New York yet. But here I am.”

“Here you are.”

“So why didn’t you high five Junmyeon at the meeting yesterday. I know your senses are good enough that you could have done it.” Kris said, starting simple. He had more serious things he wanted to talk about, but he had to build up his confidence first.

“I wanted to see him suffer. He knows I’m blind. He should have expected that.” Kris laughed a bit.

“You do flips across the city, but you can’t return one man’s high five. You’re cruel.” Yixing shrugged at Kris’ words. Kris was glad to be back talking to someone he didn’t feel weird around. Someone who he could be as awkward as he actually was and not be judged for it. It was nice. Having that again. It had been so long. And that brought Kris’ mind back around to the topic he really wanted to discuss. “So it looks like I am going to be in New York for a while. Maybe permanently.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. And I was. Uh. Wondering.” He paused and took a deep breath. “Would you like to make our thing a little more permanent? Like, less friends with benefits and more of a relationship?”  There was a pause before Yixing responded. He looked like he was seriously thinking it over and Kris was about to freak out before he heard Yixing’s voice.

“You mean like boyfriends?”

“Yeah.”  
“Mmm. Sure. Why not?” Kris let out a sigh of relief. He knew that that was the closest to a flat out yes he would get. He reached out an arm and pulled Yixing in close to his body. The smaller man resisted for a moment before leaning into Kris. The sun was warm across both of their bodies and Kris was content. Maybe more than content. Perhaps he was happy. It was kind of a foreign feeling, happiness. He hadn’t really been happy in a very long time. Temporary joy, yes, but not this deep-seated happiness that made him feel like nothing could ruin his day. It was very nice.

The next thing Kris was aware of was the elevator dinging and he realized that he must have dozed off. Yixing was still warm against him, but they were no longer alone. Tao and Jongdae stepped out of the elevator and immediately went into the kitchen area. They didn’t seem to have noticed the two people on the couch. Kris was rather grateful for that. They could stay there unbothered for just a bit longer.

Junmyeon was the next person to arrive. His eyes zeroed onto Kris almost as soon as he had exited the elevator. His gaze passed between Kris and Yixing and he looked like he understood something. Probably the reason for the rejection the night before. Kris raised his hand that wasn’t resting on Yixing in an awkward wave that was returned just as awkwardly.

“Do you two want anything for breakfast?” Junmyeon called over to them as he walked into the kitchen area. ”I’m sure we can make anything you want.”

“Go make me pancakes.” Yixing said, nudging Kris with his elbow. “Cinnamon apple. I know you won’t mess them up. I don’t trust the others not to burn food, not yet.” Kris rolled his eyes affectionately before pulling away and standing up.

“Fine, fine. You’re lucky I like you.” He made his way over to the kitchen. “I’ll cook. Just tell me where everything is.” Kris stated, once he was in the kitchen. All three of the other men looked at him. Tao seemed kind of skeptical.

“You can cook? Are you sure?” Kris was back to thinking that maybe the kid was actually a brat after all.

“Yes. I’m positive.”

“You just don’t look the type, that’s all. You look like you’d burn water.”

“Not everyone is you, Tao.” Junmyeon said. That caused Tao to shut up. He left the kitchen and wandered over to one of the unoccupied couches, pouting the entire way. Though it seemed that he wasn’t too offended, as he was soon intently watching some show on the tv. Junmyeon turned his attention back to Kris “Yeah, I can show you where everything is.”

“Thank you.” Kris was given a brief tour of the kitchen. He pulled out all of the ingredients that he would need as he saw them. He figured if he didn’t get them out right when he found them, he would probably end up forgetting where they were.

Once he had everything he needed and was given a rundown of how everything in the kitchen worked, Kris set about making pancakes. He automatically made multiple times the amount of batter he would regularly make, to account for the number of people he knew were staying in the tower. He managed to enlist the help of Jongdae and Junmyeon for slicing the apples and mixing the batter. He was so engrossed in what he was doing that he hadn’t even noticed that the living space was getting more crowded as everyone was waking up. By the time he was done cooking the pancakes, everyone from the meeting was in the space, everyone sitting around the large table. Kris was surprised. There was a large platter full of pancakes when he finished. Tao carried it over to the table as Kris wandered over to take the seat next to Yixing. Plates and forks were already set out along with butter and syrup and anything else someone might need for pancakes.

Yixing’s foot nudged his leg under the table as everyone started digging into the food. Kris thought that he might like it there after all. The conversation over breakfast was light and full of laughter. Any outsider would probably think that they were just a regular group of friends, not some people that had just met each other for real the day before. Kris already felt comfortable around them. That was something that was new. He decided that he liked it.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Several hours later, Kris found himself sitting on his bed with a manilla folder containing all of the known information about Deadpool in his hands. There wasn’t all that much. All that was in the file was that the man was a mercenary with a healing factor. There was some speculation about his real identity and where he was likely to be living, but that was about it. It was starting to look like Kris would just have to wander around the city until he ran into him. Well, that was one way to get acquainted with New York.

Deadpool had last been seen a few blocks away from the tower, so Kris figured that was the best place to start. He waited around the tower until it started to get dark, and then he headed out.

It was a nice night. The moon was almost full and the sky was clear. With all of the light, Kris wasn’t worried about tripping over anything. He figured it was better too look around back alleys first, or rooftops, but he didn’t trust himself that high up in the dark. So back alleys it was. Kris just hoped he wouldn’t get lost.

The particular alley he ended up in wasn’t anything special. There was some light and he could walk without stepping all over trash. It wasn’t somewhere that Kris would go when going exploring or on a walk, but it could be a lot worse.

And then someone dropped out of the sky in front of him. Kris would never take responsibility for the sound that came out of his mouth.

At least the person in front of him was exactly who he was looking for.

“Looking for me?” The guy said, standing from the crouch he had landed in. Kris waited to see how this would go. The less talking he had to do, the better, honestly. Deadpool tilted his head “Wait a second. Aren’t you Kris Wu? The guy who fought alongside Captain America?” He sounded excited.

“Um. Yeah?”

“Ohmygod. That’s so awesome. What’s he like?” That caught Kris off guard a bit. He had asked as if Chanyeol was still alive.

“The best man I’ve ever known.” Kris answered truthfully. He didn’t want to go into it in detail, not with this stranger. “But I have something else I want to talk to you about.”

“Right, right. You were looking for me. But. Can you tell me more about him later?” The man just sounded so excited that Kris didn’t want to crush his dreams. Or something. At least not at the moment. It all depended on how recruiting him for the team ended up going.

“Sure. But, uh. Do you have a name that I can call you?” Kris figured that a real name was better than just calling him Deadpool. Saving codenames for the field was something he felt a bit strongly about.

“Tell me why you were looking for me first. It’s called a secret identity for a reason, after all.” Okay, Kris understood the logic behind that, but he also knew from experience that secret identities never stayed secret for too long. It was better that someone trustworthy found out than someone sinister.

“We’re forming a superhero team based here in New York. And, uh, we want you on the team.” Kris really wished the man wasn’t wearing a mask. He couldn’t tell if Deadpool was interested or bored or annoyed or anything. It was a bit bothersome.

“So what you’re saying is that you want me to let people tell me what to do.” He didn’t sound too happy about that.

“Uh. You’d get paid well?” Kris tried. He was beginning to doubt that Deadpool would come with him. Being the one person to come back unsuccessful from their mission would be embarrassing. He needed to convince this guy to join the team. That’s what was expected of him. Following orders was something he was pretty good at.

“That’s tempting. And I’d get to fight alongside you, right? The partner of Captain America?” And it was back to that topic. Wow, this guy had a one track mind.

“Yes. But if we’re supposed to trust you to have our backs, you’re going to need to trust us.”

“Right, right. You want my name. It’s Baekhyun.” He stuck out a hand for Kris to shake. Kris warily indulged him.

“Does this mean you’ll join the team then?” Kris asked just to make sure.

“Sure. Why not. If you promise to tell me about what Captain America was like.” Baekhyun prodded. Kris sighed, but nodded in agreement. “So is there some team headquarters or do we all just get together when we are needed?”

“There’s a headquarters kind of place. Just, follow me.” Kris told him before he began to walk out of the alley. He sincerely hoped that Baekhyun wouldn’t try to ask him too many questions on the walk back to the tower. It was a short walk, so he figured he should be fine. Baekhyun did talk his ear off a bit, but Kris just focused on ignoring him and not getting lost.

Baekhyun had stopped trying to talk by the time they reached the tower. Kris took him up the elevator and into one of the meeting rooms where Junmyeon was waiting for him to return. Once Junmyeon starting talking, Kris left the room. There wasn’t anything new he needed to hear, and he was tired. For a brief second he debated going to Yixing’s room to sleep, but quickly decided against it. He wasn’t quite sure where it was and he didn’t feel like getting lost in the tower. So he made his way back to his own room.

Inside, Tao’s bed was empty. Kris was surprised for a second before he remembered that his roommate had been sent out of the country on his own recruitment mission. Kris wasn’t going to complain about being alone.

Kris didn’t even bother changing out of his clothes, he just flopped down on top of his bed and went to sleep. Anything else could be worried about in the morning.


End file.
